Living aBlaze - A Winter Introspective

Winter is an introspective season…

...the leaves fall, the sky goes from a deep blue to a translucent grey, life seems to take pause. We know the spring is coming, but as the icy chill wisps through our hair, we are reminded that the cold is here to stay for the time being.

One thing that the LORD has been teaching me over the past few weeks, is that life isn’t without its hardships. Even a life… especially a life, devoted to God.

The world, much like the season we’re in, is a frigid place. In the blizzard of life, we are called to be bonfires, not pocket warmers, not sweaters…a hot and blazing inferno. The love of Christ ought to shine through us and give heat, solace, survival to others in the midst of the bleak. Transparently, I’ve been tempted to give into the drifts of snow, becoming self consumed and one with the reality that I may as well except a world of little remorse and trudge through the freeze, making my own way, hoping for discarded clothing to give my own self warmth. Perhaps I may even choose to embrace my fate… maybe becoming what I’m resisting would be better than fighting it… OR, I can choose to except that the love, perseverance, and presence of the LORD will be enough to give me heat, and not just enough to keep me warm, but enough to start other fires in those around me struggling out in cold.

So if the LORD is an unquenchable heat, why would one ever leave that? Why give it all up to go at it on your own?

The thing about being a fire source in the middle of a blizzard, is the blizzard will always attempt to put you out. If you are the fire, it’s an uncomfortable place to be. Every time the world gets a snowflake past your flame, it sizzles, it momentarily makes you stop and think… will I be extinguished? Perhaps I will be put out for good! In truth, one small snowflake nor the entire wrath of the snowstorm will every be enough to extinguish God’s flame, but our perception, our very resolve, is always being challenged.

So, enough speaking in riddles.

We as believers are meant to be a source of rest, comfort, support, and life (heat) to those who are lost but the world (The Blizzard) wants us to be just as lost as our wandering brothers and sisters. It will tempt us with ease, wealth, pleasures, home-made nirvanas, it will say “You can do it on your own, you’ll be comfortable and happy if you just follow me” but to be a source of positive change, to draw others to the eternal light and life of Christ, we have to resist what the world offers, and persistently rely on Jesus as our salvation and our sustenance…Which, in reality, is better and more secure than anything attainable on earth. Many times, it will require giving up our walls of safety, things that we’ve done on our own to make us feel guarded, wether that’s money, contingencies, emotional barriers, what we consider “healthy” addictions, etc… The problem with building safety barriers is that when they’re erected, it’s hard for us to let God enter in. All is fine until God wants you to reach into your account and help that poor family that is about to lose their electricity… All is fine, until God wants you to surrender that deep seated hurt that’s been dragging you down for half a decade… All is fine, until God says he wants you to step out in faith and do something crazy for His kingdom that may look insane to others. Our barriers prevent Jesus from doing miracles in and through us, for the benefit of a broken and depraved world. And in giving into our worries, fears, or even the opposite, pride and selfish ambition- thinking we can be our own saviors, the Kingdom of God loses a heat source.

So my question to you, as a believer and the question I have raised to myself is, will you let God use you as a source of life? Will you resist what the world has

to offer you though it may bring you rebuke from you piers, financial instability, perhaps even a removal of the mask you wear on the day-to-day that hides Christ, making you appear “normal” and “sane”? Will you trust that God can and will be your everything though you may lose it all for the sake of the lost?

Realistically, some of you reading this will say “no”. And I would be lying if I said “and that’s okay”. I do not believe God calls us to be nominal Christians, nor do I believe God calls us to be absent from His work. I’m convicted that there will be a price to pay for those of us who see but choose to remain blind.

It’s time to die to ourselves. It’s time to live for eternity. It’s time to fight back the winter and embrace the LORDs fire unto ourselves. It’s time to call people home… to life.